“6 Days” is a new piece stemming from a collaboration of master machinima maker Joshua Diltz and artist-provocateur Joseph DeLappe, two people whose work I have long admired.

Here is the introduction provided by Joshua:

“’6 Days’ is an experimental documentary that examines the consequences of a military conflict that rages over a period of six consecutive days in a virtual game world. Through the lens of both a static and a roaming ground camera, the movie captures both visceral action and a sobering body count.

Based on the game “Call of Duty 4,” the film pays homage to the lives, both military and civilian, lost during the Second War of Fallujah.”

This collaboration stems from the Play Machinima Law conference we held at Stanford in the spring. As far as I know, Joseph and Joshua did not know each other beforehand. [On this point, Joshua just wrote the following in an e-mail message, 5 Aug. 2009: "Yes, the project did originate from the conference. Both meeting Joseph and listening to the concept of preserving data that could be played back in real time. The captured footage came from captured data in multiplayer sessions. It's actually quite an interesting means of creating movies and recording how people interacted in the virtual space. All the data fits into about a 5mb file than came be played back and explored post capture. The demo capture allows you to view players actions and the conversation they had while playing. All in that tiny file."]

This is a pathbreaking example of what I think will become an important creative form: non-fiction machinima. In this sense, as a documentary, it ties in beautifully with our own Preserving Virtual World efforts and the impulses behind it.

Please, if you have reactions to the piece, feel free to submit a review below.

-- HEL

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